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“A couple of suits came around last week, looked at the tents and shook their heads and I didn’t think that was good. A couple of days later a team got rid of all their possessions. They turned up in a truck when the homeless weren’t there and took the tents, sleeping bags and personal belongings. I wondered what they would do without their sleeping bags and tents. To do that to them is wrong.

“A few households have taken hot drinks and food to them. There was no increase in crime, littering or harassment and they just needed to be left alone. It’s not as if they were drinking alcohol or breaking into cars. In fact people might have thought twice about breaking into cars because they were there. I was quite happy with them being there.

Hanley Park opened in 1897 and is one of the largest Victorian parks in the country

“The council needs to look at how it treats the homeless. They are people who have fallen on bad times and to treat them like that is awful.”

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Retired neighbour John Farrar says he is ‘sympathetic’ towards the homeless - but they stayed too long.

The 66-year-old said: “They must have been here for about three months. At first I thought they wouldn’t be here that long because they would have to be moved but then it went on and on. They kept themselves to themselves but I thought it was rather cheeky that they were there. I don’t see why they thought they could stay that long in a park.”

Stoke-on-Trent City Councillor Ruth Rosenau believes more should be done to stop people falling into the homeless 'trap'

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A city council spokesman said: “We are committed to supporting all people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. We have been supporting the people in this area for some time and they have been accessing alternative accommodation in a hostel, which we helped to source for them. We must stress that they have not been forcibly removed from Hanley Park.

“The tents in the park did not appear to have been used for sleeping in overnight and contained a range of drugs paraphernalia – including used needles – alongside human excrement. We have been told the scene was akin to a drugs den. This is clearly a health hazard which is the reason why the tents were removed.”